My Cozy Den

one american thing that confuses me are college application letters. why do you need to write yourself a tragic backstory to go to university, don't you have standardized exams? who's reading through all these bad high schooler essays?

people will understand that owning an exotic carnivore as a pet is a high-risk activity that requires extensive care, research, training and resources to even begin to approach something resembling a safe and ethical situation but if you say anything about how they probably shouldn't let their 160lb untrained mastiff off leash at the mall to growl at toddlers they'll be like but he's just a pupperino and also you LITERALLY brought a human baby within my eyeline, which is a form of violence

I do think most childhoods are pretty traumatic just, by default. even run of the mill taking your shit, grounding you, setting strict rules (which would be absurd for an adult) style parenting. Physical and sexual violence on top of that is more fuel to the fire, and certainly contributes a heavy mental load, but children are fundamentally not treated like people by most of the world. They're an investment; a form of useful property that might someday become an endebted human being. This is the context under which all child abuse occurs; but the context itself is rather deplorable, don't you think?